Ridgecrest Boulevard rehab moves forward

After being on the back burner for at least eight years, West Ridgecrest Boulevard will receive a major reconstruction between Mahan Street to China Lake Boulevard over seven months in 2014.

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Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

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Posted Jan. 8, 2014 at 10:48 AM

Posted Jan. 8, 2014 at 10:48 AM

After being on the back burner for at least eight years, West Ridgecrest Boulevard will receive a major reconstruction between Mahan Street to China Lake Boulevard over seven months in 2014.

“The project is scheduled to break ground in either late March or early April,” Ridgecrest City Manager Dennis Speer said on Tuesday.

Speer said that the timeframe for construction is between 210 and 220 days between groundbreaking and final wrap-up.

“That will take us into the fall of this year, so there will be very few people in town that won’t physically see that project under way,” Speer said.

Speer acknowledged that there might be some inconvenience for traffic flow while the construction is ongoing.

“In some cases if you don’t have to go to any businesses on that street, you might want to change your route and go a different way,” Speer said.

The construction will be paid for by a $6.2 million federal grant received through the Kern Council of Governments in late 2013.

The project has been scheduled or programed for several years. However, funding the project through KernCOG has been delayed for one reason or another.

Recently, the city had to update the environmental study associated with the report, Speer said.

“Laws change, and so we had to make those necessary adjustments,” Speer said. “But now we are in position and have brought on Willdan Engineering to act as our construction manager on the project.”

As part of the pre-reconstruction efforts, utility companies are lowering or relocating their assets before the street work begins. PG&E is currently working on lowering its utilities, while Verizon has already wrapped up most of its work.

The Indian Wells Valley Water District is last in line and will be just ahead of the construction efforts timeline-wise.

Speer said overall this would be a project to inject a fresh face into the community.

“This is a monumental thing for us to finally break ground and do the construction this year,” Speer said.